A few years ago a book came out called “The Secret”. Have you ever read it? I read it and I remember it was all the rage. Essentially, the book was saying “what you think about, you bring about.” While It is true that thinking positive thoughts attract positive actions, when we are prayerful, trust God and keep a positive outlook we will see better results. Even better outcomes are available to us when we gather together with other prayerful Christians, who have the same positive outlook and faith. Why? Because we can be a comfort and a resource for one another. It’s amazing how many of your dreams will come together if you try this. Make no mistake, I do not mean you should exclude anyone. We should always be welcoming and share our faith.

You are a child of God and he wants you to be happy, healthy and successful. You wouldn’t want any less for your own children, so why would anyone think God would want less for them. Matthew 8:27 says “even the wind and the waves obey him.” When you ask God for what you need and want, remember to keep a positive outlook, and associate with other people who are doing the same. Then, everyone is blessed together. Psalm 56:3 says “[w]e can’t always see where the road leads, but God promises there is something better up ahead; we just have to trust him.” I have seen this repeatedly in my own life. It’s true.

Happy Monday! It’s a great to share something good! I worked really hard finishing three classes over the weekend. Have you ever felt like something was hanging over your head? That’s how I felt, and every day something happened. I was able to spend time with my children, grandson and husband over the weekend, which is always great. Last night I even found time to read a magazine. I sometimes feel like I should work 24/7, but rest is important, because it restores us.

Have you ever felt like someone was just driving you crazy? Does the way your neighbors behave get under your skin? Do you sometimes think you are going to lose your mind if you are around a coworker for one more minute? Has someone ever betrayed your trust and hurt you deeply? A good percentage of our aggravation every day comes from people not being what we want them to be or behaving how we would like for them to behave. God created all of us differently and each person has value in the world. Wouldn’t it be boring if we were all alike? Proverbs 11:27 says “he that diligently seeks good, seeks favor and grace.” In today’s terms this means, find something good in every person you meet. You don’t have to forget the bad, just don’t focus on it. Don’t let the world corrupt you with gossip and unnecessary talk. Accept everyone for who they are and enjoy them for the good they bring into the world.

In the most famous and best sermon of all time, Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart” (Matt. 5:8). Have you ever wondered what it means to be pure of heart? What do you have to do? Do you need a special drug, like maybe a statin? With all the sin in the world, have you ever wondered if it’s even possible for people living in 2017 to have a pure heart? Is it still possible to see God?

Jesus was not speaking about the heart as a biological organ. He was talking about us keeping our soul pure. The Greek word for “pure” used in Matthew 5:8 is Katharos, which means clean, without guilt, without hidden agendas, blameless and innocent. This definition makes me think of a new-born baby, who hasn’t been alive long enough to sin.

When we become Christians, we are like new babies in Christ. The difference is we have sinned, but when we ask for forgiveness, our guilt is washed away with our sin. Remaining pure depends on our ability to strive to make good decisions and act without hidden motives and without hypocrisy. Whenever we realize we are falling into these inappropriate behaviors, we should immediately ask for forgiveness. God forgives us the same way we forgive our children. So, even in 2017 we can be pure of heart and see God. Isn’t that great!!

Happy Friday! Have you ever woke up so happy you could hardly stand yourself? . . . Or maybe a better question is can your family tolerate you in the morning? I’m a morning person, and I drive my husband completely insane. However, I think my morning attitude is rubbing off on him. He has recently started waking me up saying “Honey, wake up . . . he came last night, and your present is here!” If that sounds a little confusing, he means God gave us the present moment. We should enjoy it!

Today, I woke up a little happier than usual and ready to spread God’s love. You may be thinking, what now? We do this every week! In fact, a friend once told me “I can’t think of something new every day!” There are always new ways to spread God’s love. If you can’t think of anything new, it’s okay to go back to what you have already done. Today, I just want to spread love through the happiness of living in the present moment God has given me, and joy of being a child of God. I feel like David, ready to dance for God.

Happy Thursday! In my town today, children of all ages return to school after what seemed like a quick summer break. I know it was always short when I was young. So, be careful this time of year, if you are driving.

Is there anything you cannot be forgiven for? Have you ever asked yourself this question? The answer is YES! We must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Any variation is unacceptable. I have found that many of my more educated friends tend to try to reason their own answers instead of trusting in what the Bible says. These folks read different books and listen to ideas, and come up with their own combination of ideas. This is what we learn to do in college. However, sometimes we need to step outside of our minds and our own reality, and trust what we don’t understand. Have faith! Look at what God has done in your life! Then, study the Bible and historical context that it was written in. Have you ever considered how many people have died to keep God’s Word protected or what extreme measures have been taken over time to preserve the Bible? Be careful about believing every book you read. Somethings can be explained with science, and somethings our minds are not ready to accept. Sometimes we see or feel something that we can’t explain. That is when we need to have faith!

He who started a good work in you will carry it to completion. Phil. 1:6

Guess what day it is? It’s a good day to use your gifts to change the world.

Have you ever wanted to do something, but felt held back by your current circumstances? Do you ever get frustrated because you are not physically able to do all that you want to do? Are your finances keeping you from making a difference in the world? Are relationship problems bogging you down and keeping you from doing what God has called you to do? Is your job too demanding to allow you to use your gifts to change the world? Psalm 46:10 reminds us to slow down, be still and know God is with us. When our faith is strong, it can move mountains (Matthew 17:20). If our faith can move mountains, surely it can help with our finances, relationships, jobs and health. But, what can we do if we are still struggling? If you feel like God is calling you to do his work but you are encountering roadblocks along the way, pray and faith it until you make it! When we let the presence of Christ rule in our hearts and fill our insides with beauty, we will not feel fear and anxiety, and his glory will shine through us. You will also find that “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).

Join me today in using our gifts to make the world a better place! God bless you.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen so much despair around me. I have heard stories about divorce, custody battles, breakups, sickness, suicide threats, financial stress, sick children, abused children, sick family members, job stress, mental illness and so much more. Have you ever fallen into one of these categories or do you know someone who has? Most of us have at one time or another had to deal with these types of stress. The good news is, you do the best you can and then you turn it over to Jesus. It’s that easy. You don’t have to spend more money or take a class. Sometimes the simplest answers are the most difficult to grasp. So today, turn everything over to our Lord and trust in his peace. If you know someone going through a tough time, please pray for them.

I am truly honored to have been nominated a second time for the Liebster Award. This time I was nominated by When I’m with You . . . Whitney Ibe Blog. The author (Whitney) of the Whitney Ibe Blog is upbeat and full of sunshine. Whitney’s positive outlook is inspiring and I love to read her posts. If you haven’t checked out her blog, I encourage you to do so soon, because her inward and outward beauty sparkles through in her writing. Thank you for thinking of me Whitney.

The Liebster Award is an Internet Award given to bloggers by other bloggers. The German word “liebster” means: dearest, sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, welcome, and sweetheart. The Award is a nice way to recognize and welcome new bloggers, while allowing others to discover them, as well.

What made you start blogging?I love to read and write. I’ve always wanted to write books. I love the Lord above all. When I was growing up I was taught to share God’s love with others. The church I attended called the sharing I’m referring to “witnessing”. I was taught that witnessing was wonderful and that we should share the gospel through our lives and words everywhere we go. The Bible talks about spreading the gospel. That is what I did.

Over time witnessing has become politically incorrect. As a supervisor at work I was told that I had to be careful about what I said because my workplace and I could be sued. I could lose my home if I mentioned God at work. I heard others say it wasn’t appropriate to say “Merry Christmas”. “Happy Holidays” was the correct holiday greeting. Well, if you have ever had God’s love inside you like I do, you will understand when I say I was about to explode. The funny thing is, I didn’t have to say anything because God’s love just radiates out of me. Over time I just became miserable. So, I sought out another way to spread God’s love, blogging. It helped me to feel more fulfilled. I felt a little like Jesus must have felt when he traveled home and his hometown rejected him, because most of my friends and family refused to look at my blog. I have been told “that was a coincidence, not a miracle,” “you are to legalistic,” and last week “you’re a fanatic”. This doesn’t bother me too much. I feel like it’s their loss. I pray that I will have the opportunity to write and publish books in the future?

If you could visit any country in the world, which would you visit?I love to travel. If I could go anywhere, I’d visit the Holy Lands first. Books, Maps, Photography and Internet information is wonderful and I’m thankful, but nothing is quite like seeing and experiencing places first hand. I want to go to the places we read about in our Bibles.

What is your favorite sport? I’m not a big sports fan. I enjoying watching my college alma mater football team play (Florida State). I also enjoy watching figure skating, and swimming and diving teams. During warmer months I swim and I walk year round.

Do you prefer digital or physical books? Both. It’s a wonderful convenience to be able to bring hundreds of books on a phone or tablet with you everywhere you go. It’s awesome. However, I still like to hold a book in my hands. I make notes in my Bible, so that I can pass them down. Likewise, I have a digital and physical planner. To me it sometimes seems like the digital world is fragile. I often think of the loss of information in the library of Alexandria.

What is the biggest problem you encounter while writing? I want my writing to be perfect grammatically, and inspirationally. The days I feel my writing falls short, seem to be the days I have the most positive comments.

What color are your eyes? Green. Most of the time the whites of my eyes are red from Sjogren’s Syndrome, which makes them look even greener. I’ve had people tell me that my eyes look like they are bleeding sometimes.

Recount a brief childhood story. What happened? When I was a teenager I worked for the County School Board one summer giving swimming lessons. Five days a week my parents would drop me off at 6:30 in the morning to catch a bus that would take me and a few other brave teens to Blue Springs. Blue Springs has ice-cold water in the middle of the day. When we arrived the sun wasn’t high in the sky yet, and the trees shaded the edges of the swimming area. So, most days we spent half of the time trying to get wet above the knees.

The children we were teaching varied in size from kindergarten to I haven’t been able to graduate yet. So, some of my students were larger in stature than I was. In the middle of the swimming area was a floating dock about fifty to seventy-five feet from the surrounding three shorelines. All the experienced swimmers would hang out in the middle. So, it was my goal to have my students swimming to the dock and back by the end of the summer. The problem was most of the students couldn’t put their face in the crystal clear water when they started lessons, and the shorelines dropped to about twenty-five feet deep about ten feet away from the shore.

All summer I worked with the students until the last week of lessons had arrived. I was determined that I would have at least one student swimming to the dock successfully. However, I only had one who could dog paddle a few feet. On the last day of lessons I looked up into the eyes of my six-foot tall most successful student and proudly proclaimed “today you will graduate because you are going to swim to the dock! Isn’t that great!” He shook and looked worried. So I reassured him by saying “don’t worry, I’ll be right beside you and I can save you if you can’t make it.” I was about five foot three and weighed a little less than a hundred pounds. My student looked to be about three hundred pounds. I wasn’t worried at all though. He could dog paddle now.

We made our way side by side toward the floating dock. I was glowing with pride. After all, I had taught this football player to swim. As soon as we were about waist deep, he began to panic. So, I told him to just stand up. That should have been my sign to turn back, but I was convinced he could do it, and I was a “good” swimmer who had mastered life saving techniques. We continued across. It wasn’t long before the water was deep and my student knew it. He was on top of me like I was a floating log. It’s times like these that you realize the lifeguard’s are also students, who in this case were obviously not paying attention because they would have seen me bobbing up and down with a football player on my back. I’m guessing he wasn’t as popular as he thought either, because no one was trying to save him. Finally, I slapped him as hard as I could and said, “get a hold of yourself, the water is only a foot deeper than your height. If you go down, you can jump up off the bottom.” I don’t really know why he believed this, because if you looked down, the water was clear enough to see that it was easily twenty feet deep where we were swimming.

So, we kept inching towards the dock, with my student trying to drown me. I was thinking that I probably needed to ask for assistance to get him back to the shore, if we survived the trip over. Suddenly, he began to swim with great vigor. I looked at him and realized he was looking at a beautiful face on the dock. The girl waved and smiled. I guess you could say he didn’t want to seem embarrassed, because he pointed at me and said, “hey, I’m teaching this girl how to swim. I’ll be there in a minute. She’s having trouble.” I couldn’t believe my ears. I started to speak and he said “shut up. Just get me there and I will find my own way back.” That day I learned that love will find a way. He made it to the dock and spent the remainder of the time with this young lady. Then, he swam back to the shore. The best part of this story is the two later married and are still married today.

What type of music do you like to listen to? This is a tough question for me. I love praise, gospel, hymns, pop, 70’s and 80’s tunes, and classical music. I like some country music.

Do you collect anything? If so, what is it? Yes. I love books.

Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself writing books, teaching and comforting others. In my free time, I will spend time with my family.

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Saturday. My sweet grandson has spent the day with me while his mom sleeps. She’s a working nurse on midnight shift. I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with him all day, but the LORD gave me strength.

A few days ago I was provided an opportunity to do something I have wanted to do and prayed about for many years, teach Sunday School. Isn’t that great? I feel like this opportunity is something God is providing me, and conversely I think I might be an answer to someone else’s prayer. So, what’s holding me back? Only one thing, am I able to make the commitment physically? I know it sounds like virtually no exertion is involved, but for me just getting there takes a great deal of effort, and I want to honor my commitments. I know the answer, but hesitate because I know I have limitations. I also know that God will let me run around in circles like the Israelites in the desert as long as I can, but avoiding the opportunity only hurts me. So, I will ask God to stand with me and give me strength. Have you ever been in a similar situation? Please share.

He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107.9

Happy Thursday! It’s a great time to practice forgiveness.

Have you ever felt empty? Have you felt like no matter what you do, you can’t find happiness? Is being content something you can’t seem to wrap your mind around? Are you an overachiever, a workaholic, a perfectionist or something similar? Do you feel you have to fill every moment of the day with an activity? Do you dread quietness? I know how you feel. There is only one thing that can fill that hole, God. You can try everything you can think of, but I promise nothing will fill that hole but God. Start your day with God and put God first all day long, and he will fill the emptiness in your soul.